Posted - 09/20/2011 : 8:08:05 PM Guess what! We've had lavender growing in our front yard, and today I harvested a whole bunch of it! Left it in a container and put it in the bag with the dyed homespun. Smelling good so far......

Ceil(Ravelry: ceilr)Time is never a factor when joy is involved.

lella

Posted - 09/17/2011 : 1:55:22 PM yes a glug, and I've never used kool aid, only Wilton for fabric and fiber. I've done pot dying, of rovings and of spun, and used jello, yes it works too. And I've used a crockpot set on high with cold water, wet yarn, vinegar and just let it cook up all the dye, and cool down overnight.

Posted - 09/14/2011 : 05:22:15 AM With Wilton's, just white vinegar. How much? A "glug." I don't know if there is a formula for how much acid, but when I pour, it's probably about half cup to the water in the shoe-box size bin, which may be anywhere from half to three quarters full. I have a friend who uses much less, and her wool dyes just as well. I just feel safer with a little more.

If you use gaywool dyes, everything is in the bottle, but still I put a tiny bit of vinegar - habit, I guess.

Yes, the Wiltons icing dye comes in those little jars and the color is very thick, like glue.

I like to play around with this, so I have mixed the color in water, usually a couple of ounces of water, and add the Wiltons til I like the color. A little goes a long way, but add it according to how dark you want the finished color.

I don't dye for one consistent color, but rather like to mix it up. When I mix the color into water, I use a big syringe and push the color into a few spots. Then, another color in other spots.

Don't use too much water, I put my wool in and let it soak a bit, then pour off excess water, so it is just to the top of the wool.

I find that locks and yarn seem to absorb the color more easily and the color will migrate enough so that you get a new color on the edges of where the two colors meet. Roving doesn't seem to absorb and migrate the color as much. I have some roving that I dyed last year that has much more white than I thought I would get. Now, I know that I have to actually put color where I want it rather than depending on the migration of color. I was surprised about that as I had assumed that the water would move the color.

This is getting long, but just to add this. Now, most of the time I put the color directly on the wet wool instead of mixing colors. I use wooden chopsticks and just stick them in the color and then touch it to the wet wool. This gives me deeper colors as there isn't much dilution. The color may be darker where you put the color, but it will migrate some.

Whichever way you do it, I learned this from a friend. Pick up the container and look at the bottom to see if there is any color there. If not, lift the wool - I use the chopstick - and put color where it is missing.

I bought a 2 or 3 pound cone of plain, ugly, beige wool yarn at a flea market last year for $3. I skeined up a lot of it and have solar dyed it and learned a lot in the process. I didn't care if my experiments failed, but I must stay that I was happy with how my colors turned out.

I use plastic bins with covers, shoebox size, to solar dye - glass bread size dishes for the microwave. That size works well for me, but any size would do. I also "processed" my wool in the oven one time and that worked out well, but the microwave is faster. The sun is easier - no mess in the kitchen.

Posted - 09/11/2011 : 10:01:20 PM Yarnlover, are you talking about the little pots of dye that look like thick icing? Do you dissolve this in hot water? I never would have guessed they could be used this way.

Melanie

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." Ecclesiastes 9:10

Posted - 09/06/2011 : 9:09:09 PM If you try the Wilton's you can dye it in the microwave in a glass container. Usually takes about 10 minutes on high. I set on high for 5 minutes, then check to see if the water is clear, if not, go for another 5 minutes. Let it cool until you can stand the heat of the water and rinse in water of same temp. Or let it cool to room temp, but I'm usually too impatient for that. Normally there is little to no run-off of color, but if the wool is dark and there is still color in the water, I pull the wool out and put new wool in.

I dyed some fleece and yarn the past weekend using gaywool dyes. These have everything included in the powder, but I still added a little bit of vinegar to the water, and I set the bins out in the sun. Got some very nice color, and used 2-3 different colors in the same bin. The color stays in place on the wool even if the water looks like one color. I ended up with locks of many colors, some of the color mixed a little, so got a new shade of green when the blue and green came together at the edges. Also dyed some varigated yarn.

Wilton's can give dark colors, and the gaywool dye also, but there is a difference in the tones. I find both of these very easy to use and lots of fun playing with color. Plus, Wilton's is cheap and easy to find at Michaels, or JoAnns. A little goes pretty far.

Posted - 09/06/2011 : 8:51:34 PM Wilton cake icing dyes? Amazing! I like the idea of kitchen-safe dyes, although I do have separate "cooking" equipment. I bought a SS 2.5 gal pot at a thrift shop for $7, and a meat serving fork for 45 cents.

I will say that a bee was attracted to the yarn while I was winding it into balls outside.....Anyway, I will keep an eye out.

Ceil(Ravelry: ceilr)Time is never a factor when joy is involved.

yarnlover

Posted - 09/05/2011 : 3:47:08 PM Hi Ceil,

It's been a while since I dyed with kool-aid, but as I remember the scent goes away over time, and not that long. I dyed in the microwave and my kitchen smelled like a number of fruity concoctions for some time, maybe a day or two, but eventually, it all disipated, from house and yarn.

I don't know about it attracting critters, I didn't have a problem.

Now I'm using Wilton cake icing dyes if I want to use kitchen safe dyes. It has no smell, is stronger than kool-aid in color, and dyes much like kool-aid with some vinegar for acidity. I dyed a bunch of wool and yarn this summer using solar power. As long as it is a sunny day, it doesn't even have to be very hot. And if the dye isn't absorbed at the end of the day, I just leave the wool out to cool and then re-heat in tomorrow's sunshine.